UP until three years ago in the outback Queensland town of Longreach, thousands of cattle were sold at the town’s saleyards weekly.

Now, as the region enters in its fifth year of an increasingly crippling drought, there’s barely livestock to be seen.

Sold for slaughter, mostly, except for the valuable breeding stock which have been agisted to greener pastures interstate, until the rains come.

“Drought is not like other natural disasters, it sneaks up very slowly and keeps tightening its grip,” third generation grazier Angus Emmott, of Noonbah cattle station, south west of Longreach told news.com.au

A GRAZIER has lost the latest battle with a Queensland coal mega-mine.
Bruce Currie owned Speculation cattle farm north of Jericho.Mr Currie and his wife Annette said the GVK Kevin's Corner mine's groundwater demands would effectively destroy their livelihood.
The property, west of Emerald, was in the region where mining giants GVK Hancock and Adani wanted to begin major mining operations.
Currie went to the Land Court to stop the proposed $4.2 billion Kevin's Corner coal project in the Galilee Basin.
But in a new judgment delivered at the Land Court in Brisbane on Tuesday, Member Wayne Cochrane decided the recommendation for the Hancock mining lease ought to be granted.
"Inevitably ... mining projects of this magnitude will have negative impacts and undesired consequences on the environment, particularly in the immediate vicinity of the mine," Mr Cochrane said in the new judgment.
"However I have come to the view that those consequences are outweighed by the benefits that will flow from the development of the mine."
GVK Hancock wanted to extract about 30 million tonnes of coal a year at the combined underground and open cut thermal coal mine.

THE Basin Sustainability Alliance is calling for the Queensland Government to cap the gas industry's unlimited access to water from the Great Artesian Basin as the Government works towards a new draft of The Great Artesian Basin and other Regional Aquifiers (GABORA) Water Plan before it expires in September.

Established in 2010, the BSA represents the interests of landholders and rural communities in south-west Queensland concerned with the long-term impacts of the CSG industry on the GBA and advocates for the sustainable management of the basin to ensure its longevity for future generations of primary producers in the area.

The BSA responded to a public notice published by the Department of Natural Resources and Mines in January with a detailed submission outlining its concerns that the Government has failed to regulate the resource sector's extraction of water from the GAB.

Never has Australia seen community opposition like this to a fossil fuel project. Ever. Not even close.
The project is the Narrabri Gas Project, and it's a huge coal seam gas development proposed by resources giant Santos. The project would be based in the northern NSW town of Narrabri but would largely take place in a precious area of forest and scrubland called "The Pilliga".

The Coalition Government is delivering $8 million for water infrastructure improvements in the Great Artesian Basin for two years to 2018–19.

This funding will help continue the delivery of important water infrastructure upgrades, by capping free flowing bores and replacing inefficient open bore drains with modern piped reticulation systems.

The Coalition Government will continue to work with state governments, industry and communities to develop an enduring partnership model for supporting Great Artesian Basin water infrastructure improvements into the future.

The Coalition Government is contributing to regional development and economic growth by providing an additional $8 million for water infrastructure upgrades across the Great Artesian Basin for two years to 2018–19.